Identity, apropriateness and the contruction of regulatory space: the formation of the Public Accountant's Council of Ontario (ABSTRACT)

MacDonald, L.D., & Richardson, A.J. (2004). "Identity, apropriateness and the contruction of regulatory space: the formation of the Public Accountant's Council of Ontario". Accounting, Organizations and Society, (5,6), 489.

ABSTRACT: Practice rights legislation in Canada continues to be contested 50 years after its first enactment. In Ontario, one of the earliest provinces to enact restrictive legislation, the challenges have focused on how the legislation has been implemented rather than on whether or not public accounting should be regulated. To better understand the contested issues, this paper examines the process undertaken by the Public Accountants Council of Ontario to implement the Public Accountancy Act of 1950. The intent is to document the process and "logic of appropriateness" used by the Council to construct its identity and stake out its "regulatory space" in the face of the ambiguity of the law and pressure from interest groups. It also identifies the contradictions that were institutionalized in this field resulting in repeated challenges to the Council. It concludes by relating these historical insights to the continuing challenges to practice rights legislation in Ontario.